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Melbourne man faces court on terror financing

Around 25,000 pages from social media accounts and 500 telephone calls and messages form part of the case against a Melbourne man charged with terrorism offences, a court has heard.

Hassan El Sabsabi, 23, appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday afternoon, charged with six counts of intentionally making funds available to a terrorist organisation.

El Sabsabi was arrested following a series of raids on homes across Melbourne on Tuesday morning.

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Prosecutor Andrew Doyle told the court the investigation commenced abut eight months ago from information from the FBI.

The prosecution was granted more time to prepare its brief of evidence against El Sabsabi because of the volume of material, a lot of which needed to be transcribed and in some cases translated.

“A substantial amount of material will be sourced from overseas,” Mr Doyle told the court.

El Sabsabi’s lawyer Trieu Huynh asked for El Sabsabi to be transferred from the Melbourne Custody Centre to the Melbourne Assessment Prison as soon as possible.

“Given the nature of the charges (and) it’s his first time in custody, it’s extremely onerous on him,” he said.

He also asked for a doctor to examine his client as soon as possible for his medical conditions, which Mr Huynh said he would not outline in open court.

Mr Muling granted the application for more time to prepare the brief of evidence.

Police earlier told reporters that about $12,000 had allegedly been provided to a man in the United States, allowing him to join terrorist militants in Syria some months ago. He continues to fight there.

El Sabsabi, from Seabrook, did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody to reappear on February 3.

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